Charlie Jarvis, chairmen of USA NEXT appeared on Inside Politics and tried to spin his way out of that disgusting ad.
Woodruff: ...is USA NEXT going to run this ad some more, and why'd you only have it up for one day?
Jarvis: We were testing to see if the left liberal groups would over react and they did. The hypothesis was that they'd focus on one single, tiny image on one website ..
Woodruff: It worked.
Jarvis: It worked. By the end of yesterday, to show you how crazy the left liberal groups are and that they have a death wish on Social Security. They were literally having people call (pause)television stations all over the country to pull the ad that didn't exist. Remarkable.
His rational that a scathing reaction to a sickening ad is a "death wish" is ludicrous. That death wish will ultimately rest on the head of Jarvis, and USA NEXT.
Michael Tanner, from the Cato Institute was appalled.
TANNER : Well, we're very disappointed in this ad. full transcript ....We don't think that we should be going down the road to in essence a bigoted approach to gay rights or things of that nature in order to sell the very positive approach that we have for individual accounts.
When you put an ad on a website, it's real.. This kind of sleazy, disgusting display reflects the moral values that your company holds true and ultimately USA NEXT will be thought of not as an alternative to AARP, but as a bigoted, conniving company that will say anything to make a buck. Let's say we believed your bullshit excuse Charlie, that it was a tiny, little ad to trick the left wing groups. (our influence is appreciated) What do you think the reaction of the right wing sites would be to an ad the AARP ran that said this Charlie?
"A starving, elderly couple with graying hair, homeless and in tattered clothes are scavenging through a dumpster looking for food. The Word "Hopeless" is stencilled across the center in red / Flip side: A well dressed Wall Street executive is laughing, smoking a big cigar, drinking some champagne at a casino with a hot chic on his arm while throwing a pair of dice. The word "Jackpot" stenciled across the center in blue. The copy:
George Bush’s Social Security plan will deprive the elderly and the youth of our country the security they might need to live and eat in dignity. While the fat cats at Wall Street will be gambling away the safety net that Social Security provides for their own personal gain. Thanks President Bush. We know who you really care about."
How do you think that one, tiny ad would play out?
